Thomas Monk

In July Thomas Monk came to the Netherlands, together with his wife and son. Thomas wrote about his experiences.

Thomas, why did you emigrate to the Netherlands?
The primary reason we decided to emigrate to the Netherlands is for better opportunities. These include better opportunities for our son growing up and studying, better opportunities for my wife’s career, better opportunities to further my own career as well as traveling and sightseeing opportunities we have now living in Europe. The culture and language made the Netherlands stand out among other European countries and the 30% tax rule makes the decision even easier.

Can you tell us something how you do like the Netherlands?
We love exploring the Netherlands by car, train and even by taking long walks. The scenery is beautiful, the architecture is stunning and everything is very organized. Compared to South Africa all the systems here work and is thought out really well. The public transport is clean and safe. With a small child safety is a big concern for us, but all of us feel very safe in the Netherlands and we haven’t felt threatened since we came here.

Please tell us something about the projects you are currently working on.
My current project is working for PostNL (the post office for the Netherlands) on their AWS microservices using the serverless architecture. We use C# .NET to code the microservices. I have a lot of experience in C#, but not so much working with AWS and microservice, so the job provide me with a great opportunity to further my skill while learning new technologies.

Did the process of emigration go smoothly?
All in all I’m very happy with how it went and there were no surprises to speak of. Some of the South African documents took a bit of time to come through, but that had no bearing on our deadlines. We also managed to get my wife’s documents sorted out quickly even though she is from another country and is in South Africa on a long-term visa. summit developers helped us prepare all the South African documents ahead of time and told us exactly what to expect when it came to the Netherlands embassy, etc.

Can you explain to the South Africans who are considering to go overseas how you did experience the support from us?
summit developers have done so much for us! Getting the interview for me and a job at a great firm. Being a constant source of information and motivation when it was needed. Sorting out the place that we are renting, the car and laptop. Even picking us up from the airport and taking us, personally, for our first trip to the supermarket. Months after arriving in the Netherlands we still rely on summit developers and they still continue to support us very well!